Microsoft has begun canceling jobs in its Azure and security divisions as staff slowdown extends to other divisions as well
Microsoft is extending its staffing delay after it began withdrawing job openings in a number of divisions.
Bloomberg reported: that the software giant is eliminating many open jobs, including in its Azure cloud business and its security software unit, as the economy continues to weaken.
It comes after a senior executive warned management of the Windows and Office divisions in May this year to take a more conservative approach when hiring new people.
Hiring delay
At the beginning of this month, Microsoft began cutting less than 1 percent of its jobs as part of an annual structural adjustment, which it routinely runs every summer.
And now Bloomberg reported that Microsoft is withdrawing job openings for its cloud and security divisions — both of which have performed well financially.
However, Microsoft has reportedly confirmed that it would honor job postings already made for open positions and make some exceptions for critical positions.
“As Microsoft gears up for another fiscal year, it’s making sure the right resources are aligned with the right opportunity,” a spokesperson said.
“Microsoft will continue to grow its workforce over the coming year and we will add additional focus to where those resources are going.”
At the same time as Microsoft is scaling its workforce, President Brad Smith gave a sharp assessment earlier this week of the difficulties US companies face in filling employee positions, in part due to declining population growth in key markets.
Smith identified declining birth rates in the United States, Europe, China, and Japan as one of the reasons for the declining working-age populations in those countries.
Government incentives during the pandemic, Covid-19 concerns, childcare and other factors have also contributed to the current labor shortage.
Economic concerns
Microsoft isn’t alone in delaying hiring and tightening its fiscal belt.
This week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (a known Apple leaker) reported that Apple will not fill positions or add new staff in certain cases, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
The iPhone giant will also slow hiring and spending for some of its teams in 2023, he wrote.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, meanwhile, warned staff in an email last week that Alphabet plans to slow down hiring and consolidate investment through 2023.
Earlier this month, Facebook parent Meta Platforms cut the target for adding software engineers this year from 10,000 to about 6,000 to 7,000.
Tesla, meanwhile, is already restructuring its operations and is slashing 10,000 jobs after Elon Musk announced he had “a super bad feeling” about the economy and planned to cut its workforce by 10 percent and “all to stop hiring worldwide”.
These steps come as the world faces inflationary pressures, rising fuel and food prices, caused in part by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the economic fallout from lockdowns imposed during the global coronavirus pandemic.
